


Falling Slowly, Falling Finally

by leobrat



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 15:19:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leobrat/pseuds/leobrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nothing with Veronica ever goes as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Slowly, Falling Finally

When it finally happened, it wasn't anything like how Eli had planned.

But then, nothing with Veronica ever is.

When he was sixteen, and blinded by Lilly Kane, there was no other girl in the world. But then Lilly was gone, and then- bam- there was Veronica, tiny and quick and sharper than anything that came before or after, though he didn't know that at the time. That was right after she first cut off all her hair, and he remembers staring at the nape of her neck all throughout English class, imagining how it would feel to just press his tongue to her slender throat.

And then when the bell rang, and woke him up out of his freaky vampire daydreams, he shook it off and headed out to the parking lot to ride. Fuck fifth period.

His fantasies got more graphic that year, and the next. For whatever bizarre reason, he had more than a few dreams of her in a cowboy hat.

But she had her on-off with Echolls, Kane, Echolls, Piz (was that that kid's name?), Echolls, some other dude, Echolls, and finally, after all was said and done, he'd really put it out of his mind. It wasn't going to happen and that was that. Whatever had started back in junior year with Veronica wasn't meant to be.

It was four years to the day from that first time he rolled up on her at the Camelot, that night that she had tasered Felix, 4:30 am, him still the PCH king. And he remembered that day, because that was exactly two weeks to the anniversary of Lilly.

Of course they didn't talk about any of that that night, when she dropped by the grounds office after his shift, asking him to go for a beer. They both knew what happened in the past, no need to rehash it. It wasn't either of their styles anyway.

'A beer' turned into not exactly going to a bar, but just grabbing a six-pack and heading down to Dog Beach. This place had a lot of memories for him, good and bad, but it still had the prettiest sunset in Neptune.

After the first few relieving sips, she started on about her day- nothing out of the ordinary, just a lot of general aggravation. The phone ringing off the hook at the office with cases neither she nor her dad could take (over the years, it seemed they'd built up quite a few conflicts of interest), she'd had a flat tire, Back-Up was getting on in his years and had an accident in the house. That part bothered her the most, not the mess she'd had to clean up, but the reality of one of her most loyal friends aging in front of her. She'd seen a lot of young life cut short, and a slow decline was something new for her.

And she wanted to talk to him about it. Over the years, he had become the person she wanted to talk to when she had a bad day.

Eli listened quietly, made a joke here or there to lighten the mood, and watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her hair had grown out a lot since high school, reaching the middle of her back, long and golden and straight. Like her sixteen-year-old self. Like Lilly.

Veronica wasn't a perfume girl, but as the breeze blew off the Pacific ocean, he caught five or six scents that he had always associated with her, and come to think of it, always associated with being home with his mom at six years old. Clean cotton and peppermint and the same lavender laundry detergent that his grandmother always used. The breeze played with the hair settled over her shoulder, lifting and fluttering and baring the nape of her neck to him. It was four years almost to the day that she had done something no other girl had managed to do before- she impressed him. And he had waited long enough.

The first kiss was clumsy, he caught her off guard and he got more of the corner of her mouth and her cheek than her actual lips. But she giggled nervously and turned into him and eventually they got it right. And then they got it good, and he finally got to taste her nape, and it was sweeter than he'd ever imagined, and she got his shirt off to lay in the sand. He was a little embarrassed then. After he'd had to start cooking for himself, and hadn't managed to master much more than macaroni and cheese or boiled hot dogs, he'd developed something of a gut. But she felt good and tight in his arms and he'd always been a good kisser. That, he was sure of.

He stopped her before anything got too hot and heavy. She was pretty, laying in the sand, hair tangled all around her face, making happy little giggly noises. "What took you so long, vato?" And he kissed the tip of her nose, and tickled her sides mercilessly and she laughed harder and tried to tickle him back until they both were laughing and gasping and holding each other tight.

They stayed late, well after midnight, and she was a little sleepy when he finally got up with a sigh and gave her a hand to help her to her feet. There was nothing to talk about when he drove her back to her car on campus, and he kissed her again, sweet but brief (he didn't want to get too carried away). They didn't need to say 'what is this' or 'where are we going' or 'what did it mean'. Totally unnecessary and neither one of their styles.

But he knew, in his heart (as cheesy as it was to think of it like that), that Veronica was his, his finally. Four years to the day. He'd waited long enough. No need to rush anything now. No need for plans, everything would fall into place.

His Veronica. Better than he'd ever imagined.


End file.
